Page:The Kingdom of Man - Ralph Vary Chamberlin 1938.djvu/21

Rh done such sweeping and revolutionary things to human work and play and life in general that the whole of the modern world has been reconditioned.

There is, as is well known, in every industry following its successful launching, a period of demand and rapid growth, with creation of thousands of new jobs, a settling down with the efficiency engineer working to increase production and decrease costs by mechanizing and stabilizing the processes of manufacture. The result of the cheapening of units by mass production is to make the products often an economic necessity, the number demanded sometimes depending, as in the case of the watch, almost solely upon the population. As a result of the cheapening of products, it is possible for more people to have them and the general standard of living rises. Machines have progressively taken the load off the muscles of the workman, relieved him of drudgery, increased his productiveness and thereby his wages while shortening his hours of work. Before the World War, the average worker turned out $2,343 worth of products in a year, for which he was paid $726. Since then industry has been mechanized more and more. The worker now produces $5,130 per year—and gets paid $1,345 for it. Our per capita wealth has risen from $383 in 1850 to about $3,500 at the present.

In 1900 not one family in a hundred owned a horse and buggy; today three out of four have cars—more than have bathtubs. In 1900 less than 500,000 homes had electricity while 21,000,000 today are wired, the electricity providing many servants for doing tedious tasks at little cost, the per capita use of electricity having increased 15 times as fast as the population growth of the country. 22,000,000 homes have radio receivers, wholly unknown at the earlier period. A mere catalog of improvements and innovations that have come into common use even within the last 20 years would fill volumes, these running from improved rayon, the consumption of which is up 3500% and is breaking down class distinctions, to cheap Diesel engines and baby diets improved so much that dentists and doctors are doomed to less work per 1000 of population. And the prospect for the future is that the same trend will continue at an even faster rate. In viewing the results, can it be questioned that, despite temporary periods of inconvenience and trouble, the modern methods of mass production are desirable?

One is tempted to ask just what the army of men employed as a result of the automobile, telephone, radio, refrigeration and other new industries would be doing if these new developments had not appeared. What we need is much more research to provide the basis for inventions about which new industries to absorb more labor will grow up. A plank favoring the fostering of science and research should be in the platform of every labor organization. Fortunately, in the offing is the possibility of many new materials, such as artificial cotton and woolen-like fibers, plastics and alloys, some of which may in the near future be as familiar and useful to us as rayon and celophane now are—as well as new inventions such